


Target Practice

by LibraryMage



Series: Break Your Chains [8]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autistic Character, Autistic Sabine Wren, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 10:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18798376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Kanan always knows when something is bothering Sabine.





	Target Practice

**Author's Note:**

> This series really is done. But at the time I wrote this oneshot, I decided not to post it, so now you guys get a surprise bonus piece of this AU.

People who didn’t know Sabine well wouldn’t have noticed anything different about her.  Sabine was rarely up front about her emotions, so her “cagey and avoidant” routine wasn’t much different than how she normally behaved.  But after living on the same ship as her for more than a year, Kanan had begun to learn the subtle changes in her patterns that signaled that something was bothering her.  He’d also learned the best ways to help her feel better.

“Sabine,” he said, clapping a hand on her shoulder.  “What do you say to some target practice?  Just you and me.”

He could see Sabine’s eyes light up in the half second before she could tone down her excitement.

“Sure,” she said, trying not to sound too invested in the idea.

Not five minutes later, the two of them were about half a mile from the ship.  They had gathered some empty processed food cans from the trash bin and set them up on a nearby cluster of rocks to use as targets.  Kanan waited until Sabine had fired a few shots, letting her get into what she was doing before he tried to talk to her.

“Something’s bothering you,” Kanan said.

Sabine’s only response was to kick lightly against the ground with her toes, which was enough of an answer for Kanan.  It was a code he’d worked long and hard to crack.  If she’d shot one of the cans in response to his question, it would have meant she was mad at someone else.  But kicking at the ground or tapping her fingers heavily against her thigh meant anger, or more likely annoyance, with herself.

“What is it?” Kanan asked.

“It’s nothing,” Sabine said, her response sounding almost automatic.  “It’s stupid.”

“Nothing you feel is stupid,” Kanan said, repeating what he and Hera had found themselves needing to tell Sabine far too often.

Sabine just shrugged, raised her blaster again, and fired another shot, just missing her target.

“It’s about Ezra, isn’t it?” Kanan asked.  Sabine just shrugged again.

“It’s okay if you can't trust him yet,” Kanan said.  “I know that can be hard for you.”

“I do trust him,” Sabine said.  “Mostly.  I mean, yeah, it can be hard, and I know he’s going through a lot, so I try to go easy on him but…Maul threw my home planet into chaos.”

She pulled the trigger of her blaster and one of the cans when flying off the rock in the distance.

“I mean, not that Mandalore didn't already have a lot of problems,” Sabine said, “but he didn’t do us any favors.  And Ezra just…”

“Sabine,” Kanan said.  Sabine turned to look at him, or rather, look slightly to his left, shifting her stance nervously like she thought he was about to lecture her about something.  “Thank you for not taking it out on Ezra.  I know it’s not always easy for you to separate things like that, and I can see how hard you’re trying.”

“It’s not his fault,” Sabine said.  The way she said it, Kanan was sure she’d repeated it to herself a few dozen times before she actually started to believe it.  “He wasn’t even born yet.”

“It’s not just that, is it?” Kanan asked.

“Let’s just shoot,” Sabine said.  “We don’t get to do this enough anymore.”

For a few minutes, they did exactly that, shooting in silence, each of them hitting more than they missed.  They rarely needed to talk, instead choosing to fall into a comfortable, familiar silence.  In that silence, Kanan began to realize just what was bothering her.

“Sabine, are you jealous?” he asked.

“No!” Sabine said indignantly as she lowered her weapon and turned to face him.  “I just -- it feels more distant between us than it used to and I…miss you.  That’s all.”

“Hey,” he said, closing the small distance between them and putting a hand on her shoulder.  “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“I told you, it’s stupid,” Sabine said.  “You’re just so focused on Ezra and I know why that is, but everything’s so different now.  I was just getting used to how things were.”

“I’m sorry,” Kanan said.  He knew Sabine didn’t always do well with change, but she’d had to go through so much of it in so little time, and there wasn’t much any of them could do to tame the general level of chaos that they lived with.

“Whatever,” Sabine muttered.  “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Okay,” Kanan said.  “We don’t have to.”

“I saw you sketching yesterday,” he said.  At the change of subject, he saw a tiny smile cross Sabine’s face.

“You repainting your walls again?” he asked.

Sabine’s smile widened as she gave an excited nod and launched into an explanation that to understand it fully would have required a knowledge of color theory and Mandalorian art history that Kanan just didn’t have.  Still, he hung on every word.  He only understood half of what she said, if that, but he loved hearing her talk.  It meant she was actually happy.


End file.
